Wednesday, February 24, 2010





California Dreamin' on Such a Winter's Day

California Sunshine


Taking a Snooze at the airport!


This past week Paul, Kathryn and I hopped on a plane and headed on a cross country adventure to California. On our way there we ended up getting stuck in Salt Lake City. It could have been a real bummer, but we decided to make an adventure out of it by going to visit the Mormon Temple. It was very interesting to get to see Temple Square and to find out more information about the mormon church. Kathryn was a real trooper through the whole day and she is such a wonderful traveler. We are so blessed! She either takes her pacifier or nurses for take-offs and landings and loves smiling and visiting with the passengers and flight attendants. In fact when we arrived back in Boston, a number of passengers commented on what a great baby she was(of course I am just a little biased!)
Finding Ways to Amuse herself on a long layover

Here is a little taste of our adventures:
Wednesday-LOTS of traveling, long layover in SLC
Thursday-visited with Jacque's grandparents- Grandma and Grandpa Gregory, went to beauty parlor with Grandma(Jacque has been doing this with Grandma since she was Kathryn's age-amazingly the beauty parlor still looks the same-quite the Steel Magnolia's moment)
Visiting with Great Grandpa

Friday-fantastic tri-tip sandwich lunch with Jenny and Daren Stemwedel, visit to mom's school to show off Kathryn, hanging out with Jacque's sister, Rena
Saturday-trip to Woodward Park-Japanese Gardens, visit with rest of the family-including Jacque's sister, Liz and her beau, George.
Having fun with Auntie Rena

Sunday-birthday celebration for Rena and Liz
Monday-relaxing and then back to the snow in Massachusetts

What a wonderful time!!! We had such a great time and can't wait for all of our family to come out and visit us out east.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010





Trip to the Aquarium/Science Museum

Exploring the aquarium with Kathryn


So the other night we went to Kelly's Roast Beef up at Jordan's Furniture in Natick to see the giant fish tank. Man, oh man was Kathryn in love with the fish. She kept on following them as they traveled around the tank. Because she loved it so much we decided to take her to the New England Aquarium the next day. Kathryn absolutely loved watching the fish, turtles, and penguins. She was especially mesmerized with the scuba diver who was cleaning the windows of the giant tank. It will be so exciting to some day take her scuba diving or at least snorkeling with us!

On Tuesday Kathryn and I joined my friend Lori and her two children for an afternoon at the Museum of Science. It was so much fun to watch her two kids play in the discovery center.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010





Excuse the colors!

I am playing around with the look of the blog! As I do just ignore the current look!





Snow Day Celebration

Enjoying a walk out in the snow (It was pretty windy, I couldn't quite keep my eyes open!)


Tomorrow marks Kathryn's 4 month-day and it has been an amazing ride.
Over the last month some fun and exciting events have taken place:
-Rolling over from back to belly and belly to back- she especially enjoys playing the roll over game with Mommy.
-Spending quality time with her Daddy. She is especially fond of singing songs from "Philadelphia Chickens" -(book and CD by Sandra Boynton) with Daddy. A favorite of theirs is "Cows".
-Night time tuck ins which include a feeding and prayers-weekday nights are done by Daddy and weekends are reserved for Mommy.
-Spitting up!-Miss Kathryn wears a bib a lot these days as she has a new affinity for tons of drool and spitting up.
-A somewhat regular sleep routine-Kathryn has been hitting the hay between 7-7:30pm and wakes up between 7-7:30am with one night time feeding. (Of course this in not always the case yet, but it is becoming more of the norm!) Paul and I have added a fun morning wake up song as we open the blinds in the morning. It ALWAYS brings a smile and an occasional giggle to Miss Kathryn. We are especially thankful to our friend Alisha who recommended the book "Good Night, Sleep Tight"- having a somewhat regular routine is key to LOTS and LOTS of smiles and fun times during Kathryn's waking hours!!!!
-Tons of sucking on anything she can get her hands on-Kathryn is especially fond of her colorful links and her vibrating grape teether!-(thank you Auntie Leslie-a long time friend of mine who is also an OT in early intervention)
-Sitting up with the assistance of Mommy or Daddy, or her Bumbo.
-A fabulous snow day to enjoy Kathryn today.
-Regular adult time in the evenings for Paul and I- we especially enjoyed our Superbowl dinner of homemade pizza and a beer.

It is amazing to look over the last four months and to see Kathryn's personality develop. A couple of nights ago after she went to bed, Paul and I were looking through all of the videos we have taken of her and we are amazed at the growth that has taken place in such a short period of time. In such moments we truly stand in awe amazing gift of human life that God gives us and to daily try and offer that gift back to God.

Kathryn loves chewing on her links!

Bath time is tons of fun!

Sitting and Relaxing

Pretty in purple!

Thursday, February 4, 2010





First Day of Better Naps and Sleeping

Little Miss K right before dozing off today

My gentle Kathryn taking a snooze a few days ago.(Pre-All Time Crib Sleeping)



Kathryn has always been a really good sleeper at night, but I guess there is a reason we nicknamed her Kat. She is the QUEEN of catnaps. Recently she has been sleeping from 9pm-4am and then is ready to go for the day(OYE!) and her naps are usually not longer than 45 minutes at a time. I don't want to be an extremely rigid parent, but I also understand that sleep is really important to growing brains.

So last night began a more scheduled sleep pattern for Kathryn. Paul and I had planned to put Kathryn down at 7pm when I got home from work, but she fell asleep about 6pm on the drive home. When I arrived at home at 7pm we put her right to bed and she zonked out until 2am. This allowed Paul and I to have a relaxing dinner together and enjoy one another's company, what a fabulous treat!!!! So at 2am I got up, changed her, fed her and she fell right back to sleep until 5:40 this morning!!!!(almost 12 hours).

This morning is where Miss Kathryn's sleep goes a bit askew! She started fussing about 8:20 so I figured it was time to go down for a morning nap. Well she was not having that! I put her in her crib and she would not settle down. Finally after comforting her in her crib for 40 minutes, I took her out and nursed her thinking that would settle her. Well it did for a few minutes, but then she got a gas bubble, so the fussing(crying, screaming, whatever you want to call it!) resumed. I got her out of the crib and rocked her till she was almost asleep but not quite, and now at 9:55 she is out for her nap!!! HURRAH!!! I pray that getting her into more of a sleep routine will help her to get a couple of longer naps during the day! Let me just say, doing this is causing me to pray A LOT more!!!